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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252698">lovely lonely nights</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinNovelist/pseuds/ErinNovelist'>ErinNovelist</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Coming of Age, F/M, Friendship, Identity Reveal, Romance, Secret Identity, happiness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:08:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,993</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252698</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinNovelist/pseuds/ErinNovelist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Dick and Barbara don’t know they’re Robin and Batgirl respectively, and they still fall in love with each other anyway. </p><p> </p><p>(for Catherine)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>78</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>BatFam Winter Gift Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>lovely lonely nights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello, hello, lovelies! </p><p>This is for the wonderful Catherine! I got your prompt and wanted to explore some DickBabs dynamics, so I really hope you like it &lt;3 </p><p> </p><p>Name: Catherine<br/>Fav character: It’s honestly a tie between Jason and Dick.<br/>Three Favorite relationships: Dickbabs (rom), Tim and Damian (bros), Cass and Stephanie (sisters)<br/>What are three things you love to see? Friendship, Found Family, Slapstick, and General happiness.<br/>Any important nopes? Gore, overdramatized angst and smut.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>i.</p><p>They’re sitting on a rooftop in mid-June the first time Batgirl asks him, “Do you think we’ve ever met outside the masks?”</p><p>It makes Robin pause, words catching on the tip of his tongue before they spill out, because he’s never given it much thought before. Even if Batman knows Batgirl’s true identity, his father certainly isn’t rushing to tell <em>him</em>. Instead, he’s stuck in limbo, wondering if this spunky, smart, <em>splendid</em> girl who’s become his best friend potentially might know Dick Grayson in their day-to-day lives.</p><p>The prospect is too overwhelming to even consider.</p><p>“Probably not,” he says in response, trying to hide the way his hands form white-knuckled fists at his side. (Because <em>oh</em> how he wishes, he wishes, he wishes.) “That’d be crazy, right? Like what would be the chances?”</p><p>Batgirl stretches her arms above her head, leaning back until she’s lounging across the rooftop. The moon hangs high in the sky and illuminates the two on the late Gotham evening. “I could probably calculate it out, but it’d be way too small to matter.”</p><p>There’s silence before Robin asks the question that’s really on his mind. “Would you <em>want</em> to know me outside the masks?”</p><p>Batgirl pauses, lets the silence linger for a few stammering heartbeats, before reaching over and smacking him hard on his bicep. “For someone so smart, you can so stupid, Boy Wonder.”</p><p>“<em>Hey</em>!” he squawks. “What’s that supposed to mean?”</p><p>Batgirl simply tilts her head and smiles up at him, green eyes sparking with mirth and something more (something he dares not try to place). “You’re my best friend too, you know,” she tells him lowly.</p><p>He rubs his arm, pretending to be upset, but the grin still stretches across his face.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>ii.</p><p>Robin meets Barbara Gordon officially when he tries to save her from a mugger in downtown Gotham, late enough in the evening that it could be considered morning. He jumps down from the roof just in time to see her kick her attacker’s legs out from under him and whip out a pack of pepper spray to face off with <em>him</em>.</p><p>“Whoa, whoa!” Robin calls out, holding up his empty hands in defense. “Not the enemy here, just dropping by to see if you needed help.”</p><p>She eases out of her crouched position with a certain grace that reminds him of delicate spring breezes that build into overwhelming storms. Her green eyes blaze furiously in the low light of the alleyway, trailing over him to see if there’s anything underhanded about his offer. Robin appreciates her vigilantism.</p><p>“Thanks,” the girl says with a tight smirk. She doesn’t put her pepper spray away, just tucks it closer to her side. “But I think I got it.”</p><p>He nods and looks around the alley, catching sight of another mugger crumbled against a brick wall with a blossoming bruise along temple. “I can see that,” he says, whistling lowly in surprise. “Nice moves, by the way.”</p><p>“Many years of self-defense classes.” She shrugs helplessly, ducking her head as she puts her pepper spray away. Her red hair falls like a curtain over her face, and this girl reminds him so much of Batgirl that it leaves him breathless.</p><p>“Can I walk you home?” The offer falls from his lips before he can catch it.</p><p>She tilts her head back and laughs, the sound like bubbly champagne at morning brunch. It reminds him of family, of light, of <em>home</em>. “Oh, I don’t think you want to go anywhere near my house.”</p><p>“And why’s that?”</p><p>“I’m the daughter of the GCPD captain.” The girl holds out her hand in his direction. “Barbara Gordon.”</p><p>The mask does little to hide his burning cheeks. “I mean… I’m well acquainted with Jim Gordon.”</p><p>“But I don’t think he’d be happy if you were well acquainted with me.” A smirk stretches across her face, fast and fierce, and it makes his heart jump into overdrive. Robin isn’t sure what about this girl makes him want to throw caution to the wind, but he’s falling and falling and there’s no way to stop it.</p><p>“You have a good point,” he tells her.</p><p>“I know I do.” She looks around at the muggers disposed. “You should probably call this in, and I should… get home.”</p><p>“Are you sure you’ll be alright?”</p><p>His question makes her laugh again. “Don’t you worry, Boy Wonder. I can handle myself.”</p><p>And with that, she turns on her heel and walks down the alley towards the street, red hair and pale skin burning bright until the flickering streetlights. He watches her go with baited breath, expression sparking with wonder and curiosity.</p><p>He’s pretty sure this girl has just stolen his heart.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>iii.</p><p>“Are you scared of heights?”</p><p>The voice makes Dick startle, jumping back away from the edge of the roof and whirling around to face whoever snuck on him. In the distant part of his mind, he can hear Bruce chastising him for the lack of vigilantism, even outside the mask. The larger part, however, is focused on the girl leaning against the brickwork of the rooftop wall of the adjourning building, staring at him with quizzical green eyes.</p><p><em>Batgirl</em>.</p><p>Dick meets her gaze with a steady one that brims with his own curiosity. He’s never seen her outside the mask before, and it’s honestly such a whirlwind experience.</p><p>(She’s still so beautiful.)</p><p>“Believe it or not, I grew up in the circus,” Dick tells her, letting that easy smile grow even wider. “Heights are just instinct for me at this point.”</p><p>She cocks her head to the side, a perplexed expression twisting upon her lips. “Am I gonna have to dive after you?”</p><p>He pauses for a moment before truly registering her words. It hadn’t hit him just now how he might have looked, perched on the lip of a rooftop and gazing down at the bustling city below. Twilight blossoms in rosy purple hues along the horizon, city lights flickering on like stars, and he wandered up to the rooftop on his walk home from a friend’s place just to have a quiet moment to think.</p><p>Rooftops on Gotham never spell fortune, especially seeing a teenager standing on the edge and poised to jump. As Robin, he’s seen his fair share of these scenarios, and quite often it speaks of nothing but a building disaster.</p><p>“No, no,” he tells her, shaking his head. “It’s not like that.”</p><p>“Really?” she quirks a brow high.</p><p>His haste to appease her worries only grows. “Seriously. I just love the view up here.”</p><p>It takes her a short while but the tension in her body finally eases, Batgirl pulling herself from her position with a grace he can never master, and lopes closer. “I guess the view is pretty nice.”</p><p>Dick only laughs. “Say what you want about Gotham, it’s got some of the best views on the East Coast.”</p><p>Batgirl crosses her arms against her chest and stares out over the city with him. The silence lingers, and it’s surprising to Dick how easy it feels to be quiet with her. If he closes his eyes, it could just be Robin and Batgirl out here instead of his best friend and someone’s who nothing more than a stranger to her.</p><p>“I’m Dick Grayson, by the way,” he tells her, shoving his hands in his coat pockets to hide how clammy they were getting. It probably isn’t the most polite thing to do, but it’s all he can do to stop himself from freaking out. “In case you wanted my name.”</p><p>“Oh I know who you are, Pretty Boy,” Batgirl says in response, her green eyes glittering with barely hidden mirth. “Vigilantes read the tabloids too, you know.”</p><p>A light pink dusts the tips of his ears, and he ducks his face into the collar of his coat and tries to play it off as the chill. “The polite thing to do is give me your name too.”</p><p>She throws her head back and laughs. “Nice try, Grayson.”</p><p>It’s the first time he’s ever heard his name on her lips, heard the way her mouth crafts those syllables, the lyrical quality to the words. It makes her heart throb because <em>oh, </em>he loves her. He wants to hear this for the rest of his life.</p><p>“So what are you thinking about?” Batgirl asks him, nudging his side with her elbow, still staring out over the horizon. “Must be perplexing enough to bring you out here.”</p><p>Dick shrugs helplessly. “Just the future, you know? Trying to figure out what I want to do.” It’s a roundabout way of summing up everything that could possibly be going on with his life right now: his anger with Bruce as he pushes against the limitations that his father set for him, the secret identity he keeps from Batgirl that he’s too sacred to breach, his time as Robin coming to a close.</p><p>The future is uncertain, and he’s not guaranteed any of it. That’s the crux of it all.</p><p>“Well, I may not know what your plans are,” Batgirl says. “But you know it’s okay if you don’t have everything figured out right now, right?”</p><p>“If only it were that easy.”</p><p>“I mean it,” she insists. “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and no one expects you to have those plans at seventeen. You’ve got to take the time to go out and find yourself before you figure out what you want to do with it.”</p><p>He shakes out his arms, trying to ease the tight clutch of his shoulders. “How do you know when it’s time to step out on your own though? Like if you’re ready yet?”</p><p>“Frankly, you never do.” Batgirl crosses her arms against her chest, ducking her head to stare at her feet. She kicks stray rocks and leaves around as she seems to process his question. “I’ve been trying for a while now. I just started doing things that felt right and took it from there, despite what other people might say about it.”</p><p>“Are you…” He lets his voice trail off, trying to find the right words. “Do you ever have any regrets—about the path that you’re taking?”</p><p>Here, she smiles; the sight is breathtaking. “Never.”</p><p>His breath hitches. Why does it always sound so simple when she says these things? It’s everything that Alfred and Bruce have been trying to convince him of for a while, things he has refused to address with Batgirl in hopes of trying to keep the world still for one moment. Perhaps it’s time to actually talk with his best friend about the situation—moving on from Robin, coming out from behind the mask, doing what he feels is the right path for both Dick Grayson and Robin.</p><p>“Ba—” he starts to say when her comms buzz, startling them from their shared conversation.</p><p>“Sorry,” she tells him with a thin smile. “But duty calls.”</p><p>“<em>Oh</em>. Stay safe then.”</p><p>She smiles a little wider—a whole lot brighter—and sends him a quick, two-fingered salute before reaching for her grappling hook at her side. “Take care, Pretty Boy,” she says softly in the space between them.</p><p>Then she jumps off the roof and falls into the city below, catching herself on a line and flying away. He watches her go—much like he’s spent his whole life doing—and finds that his heart aches to follow.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>iv.</p><p>Dick Grayson meets Barbara Gordon when he comes to the Gotham City Police Department on a Tuesday afternoon after class to look into the police academy.</p><p>Barbara stands in the doorway to the office of Jim Gordon, red hair tied back in a long braid sitting over her shoulder. Green eyes burn bright behind thin-wire glasses as she laughs and smiles at whatever her father is saying. Constellation freckles dust the tips of her cheeks, and she reminds him so much of Batgirl in the moment that his heart threatens to jump out of his ribcage.</p><p>Robin has met Barbara occasionally around the city since their first meeting, catching her on the walk home from work or dashing into the library to cram for a last minute exam. She attends the local university, and sometimes patrols take him that far west to observe the campus on weekends. They’ve built a rapport, civilian and hero, and their conversations are always fast-paced and exciting.</p><p>Barbara Gordon continues to enamor him, but right here and right now… Dick’s frozen. He’s never talked to Barbara outside of the mask, never seen how she handles herself in the presence of someone else. But she’s just as beautiful and brilliant as she’s always been.</p><p>Eventually, Barbara turns to leave and catches sight of him, standing numbly by the receptionist’s desk. The warm smile on her face never leaves. “Dick Grayson,” she greets warmly.</p><p>“Ms. Gordon,” he says in response, cocking his head to the side and wonders if he missed something—if somehow their story started earlier than originally thought. “Sorry, but have we met before?”</p><p>“Yeah, of c—” She pauses abruptly, eyes wide as she catches up to her words. She opens her mouth a few times, trying to form a sensible sentence, before pressing her lips into a thin line and shaking her head. “Sorry, no, we haven’t. But my dad works with Mr. Wayne for charity events sometimes. He’s spoken a lot about you.”</p><p>Unease boils in the pit of his stomach. Bruce still doesn’t know he’s here, considering the police academy.</p><p>“It’s nice to meet you then, officially,” Dick says and stretches out his hand towards her.</p><p>She grips it, white-knuckled and resolute. “Trust me, the pleasure’s all mine.” Her gaze lingers on the bunch of brochures and an application in his other had and nods towards it. “You thinking about joining the force?”</p><p>He tightens his hold on the packet of information the receptionist gave him and laughs, running a hand through his hair. “Uh, yeah actually. Planning on it at least.”</p><p>“That’s awesome,” Barbara tells him, her eyes turning faraway with an emotion he can’t place. “I thought about joining the force myself when I got out of school, but my dad wasn’t too fond of that decision. I found something else that suited me better anyway, so now I’m at Gotham U taking some courses.”</p><p>“That’s really cool,” Dick offers, thoughts fading to the bubbling fears of actually telling Bruce about his plans. He’s avoided it for so long that talking about it for the first time—with Barbara, who reminds him so much of Batgirl of all people—is treacherous terrain. He isn’t sure how to feel about it or where to take it all.</p><p>“What made you decide to look at law enforcement?”</p><p>He smiles and thinks about Batgirl that night on the rooftop all those weeks ago. “Someone close to me told me to take the time to find myself, to do what feels right. This… feels right to me, you know?” He looks at her, catching the fading curiosity that sparks across her face. “Can’t help but follow the heart, I guess.”</p><p>She narrows her eyes with a quizzical expression. “You’re something else, Dick Grayson.”</p><p>“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks with a soft laugh.</p><p>“Nothing, you’re just…” Her voice trails off, lost in thought. Then, she shakes her head with amusement. “You remind me of a friend of mine.”</p><p>“I hope in a good way.”</p><p>“Definitely.” Now, her smile is positively radiating. She’s so intent and absorbed in her certainty, and it terrifies him because he recognizes that same look on Batgirl.</p><p>His heart pangs, his head hurts, and Dick can’t fight the feeling that he’s missing something. Like someone he should know is standing right in front of him, and he can’t even see them. Even as Barbara Gordon takes her leave, Dick tilts his head to watch her go, and he thinks he can see a black cape fluttering behind her as she walks away.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>v.</p><p>Batgirl asks him months later when he wears the new blue and black suit for the first time, still getting used to the baton strapped to his back and the lack of a cape when maneuvering. “Do you think we’ve met outside the masks?”</p><p>Nightwing pauses, fixing the comms unit in his ear as Batman relays the latest updates about the heist they’re interrupted that night. “What do you mean?”</p><p>“Don’t be stupid, Boy Wonder,” she huffs, shaking her head. “You know exactly what I mean.”</p><p>“Do <em>you</em> think we have?” he asks, turning the question back on her. Because he has his suspicions—he’s had them for months now—ever since the first moment he saw the ginger girl standing in the dark alleyway on the tide of disaster.</p><p>“If I thought I knew your true identity—if I thought I knew your real name, would you want me to tell you?”</p><p>Nightwing stops, flicks the comms off because he doesn’t want Bruce to hear this, because he can’t handle any outside distractions over the beat of his own heart. He’s been wishing and hoping and waiting for this moment for years. If it’s all coming to head… he wants to be <em>ready</em>.</p><p>“Barbara,” he says instead, the name falling like habit from his lips. Those lovely nights with Batgirl and the lonely ones spent with Barbara—he’s put the pieces together and fallen in love with the same girl.</p><p>(<em>Please please please don’t let me be wrong</em>.)</p><p>Batgirl looks around, making sure that there’s no one who could be watching as she reaches up and pulls her mask off. Those familiar green eyes stare back—the ones from the alley, the ones from the roof, the ones from the police department.</p><p>“Hey, Grayson,” she whispers lowly.</p><p>His heart soars, his face warms, and he feels like he’s fallen in love all over again.  </p>
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